Improvised Lives

The poor and working people in cities of the South find themselves in urban spaces that are conventionally construed as places to reside or inhabit. But what if we thought of popular districts in more expansive ways that capture what really goes on within them? In such cities, popular districts are the settings of more uncertain operations that take place under the cover of darkness, generating uncanny alliances among disparate bodies, materials and things and expanding the urban sensorium and its capacities for liveliness.

In this important new book AbdouMaliq Simone explores the nature of these alliances, portraying urban districts as sites of enduring transformations through rhythms that mediate between the needs of residents not to draw too much attention to themselves and their aspirations to become a small niche of exception. Here we discover an urban South that exists as dense rhythms of endurance that turn out to be vital for survival, connectivity, and becoming.

Oamenii saraci si muncitori din orasele din sud se gasesc in spatii urbane care sunt in mod conventional interpretate ca locuri de locuit sau de locuit. Dar daca ne-am gandi la districtele populare in moduri mai expansive care surprind ceea ce se intampla cu adevarat in interiorul lor?